The US military is considering shooting down North Korean missile tests as a show of strength to Pyongyang, two sources briefed on the planning have told the Guardian. Amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, the Pentagon is looking for ways short of war to pressure the country into denuclearization, particularly if Pyongyang goes forward with a sixth nuclear test. The defense secretary, James Mattis, has briefed Congress on the option, but the military has not yet decided to intercept a test missile. One US official said the prospective shoot-down strategy would be aimed at occurring after a nuclear test, with the objective being to signal Pyongyang that the US can impose military consequences for a step Donald Trump has described as “unacceptable”.

On a visit to South Korea this week, the US vice-president, Mike Pence, warned Pyongyang against testing Trump’s “resolve”, and declared an end to Obama’s “strategic patience” policy. But North Korea’s deputy foreign minister, Han Song-Ryol, told the BBC that Pyongyang would continue to test missiles “on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis”. All-out war would ensue if the US took military action, he said. Experts and former officials said shooting down a North Korean missile during a test would risk an escalation that Washington might not be able to control, which would risk potentially devastating consequences to US allies South Korea and Japan.

South Korea said on Sunday North Korea’s latest missile launch threatened the entire world, warning of a punitive action if it leads to further provocations such as a nuclear test or a long-range missile launch.

“North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday’s military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A North Korean missile “blew up almost immediately” on its test launch on Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Command said, hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was due in South Korea for talks on the North’s increasingly defiant arms programme. (Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Defense Secretary James Mattis said Tuesday that North Korea is hoping to “provoke” the global community with its recent ballistic missile tests. “The leader of North Korea again recklessly tried to provoke something by launching a missile,” Mattis said of Pyongyang’s attempted missile launch Sunday, according to The Associated Press. Mattis mentioned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while traveling to Saudi Arabia during a weeklong tour of the Middle East. Mattis said the ballistic missile North Korea tested on Sunday was not an intercontinental weapon capable of reaching the U.S.

The Defense secretary declined to comment on what caused North Korea’s most recent missile test to fail and would not elaborate on what type of missile was tested. A U.S. official said over the weekend that the ballistic missile launched from near the North Korean port city of Sinpo “blew up almost immediately.” Reports on Tuesday said that the U.S. military was considering shooting down future North Korean missile tests as a show of strength to Kim.

SYDNEY, April 18 — China has an obligation to use its “enormous leverage” to bring nuclear-armed North Korea back from the brink, Australia’s prime minister said today, toughening Canberra’s position on the escalating crisis. Malcolm Turnbull’s remarks came after the North’s latest failed missile test and ahead of a visit to Australia by US Vice President Mike Pence, who is in Asia to signal Washington’s commitment to regional security. “The North Korea regime is a reckless and dangerous threat to peace and stability in our region and, indeed, in the world,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.

“The real obligation—the heaviest obligation—is on China.”

Beijing has “enormous leverage over North Korea” and “the ability… to bring, to pull North Korea back into at least the position where it is not threatening to rain down devastation on its neighbours,” Turnbull said. “So what we’re now looking forward to is action from China.”.

Visiting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday declared his country’s “unwavering commitment” to Japan as it looks to confront the “ominous threat” posed to the region by the North Korean regime. Speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, Pence said, “The alliance between the United States and Japan is the cornerstone of peace and security in northeast Asia.” “We appreciate the challenging times in which the people of Japan live with increasing provocations from across the Sea of Japan,” Pence told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office.

“We are with you 100 percent.”

Amid soaring tensions over Pyongyang’s threat to conduct another nuclear test, the two leaders made a point of agreeing to further strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance. They also vowed to again urge Beijing to play “a bigger role” in dealing with the North Korean threat. Pence, who arrived with his wife and two daughters earlier in the day at the U.S. Navy’s Atsugi air base in Ayase, Kanagawa Prefecture, as part of a 10-day trip to Asia, said, “Peace comes through strength” and the U.S. stands by Japan and other allies in the region. “The U.S. will continue to work with Japan, with all of our allies in the region, including South Korea, to confront the most ominous threat posing to this region of the world — the regime in North Korea,” he said at a separate news conference later in the day.

“Our commitment is unwavering and our resolve could not be stronger,” he said.

(CNN)A failed missile launch in North Korea Sunday has brought renewed attention to reports that the United States is trying to degrade North Korea’s missile capabilities via hacking. It’s unclear if the US interfered with this specific test, but the tactic is actively being pursued by the US military, according to public statements and Congressional testimony by current and former members of the armed forces. “There is a very strong belief that the US — through cyber methods — has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these sorts of tests and making them fail,” former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind told the BBC.

Rifkind’s comments come on the heels of a report in The New York Times last month saying US President Donald Trump inherited a cyberwar on North Korea in the hope of sabotaging its missile tests. “It’s clear United States policy to develop the cyber capability to disable enemy ballistic missiles,” said Greg Austin, a professor at the Australian Centre for Cyber Security at the University of New South Wales. It’s been touted as a cost-saving measure that could be used in conjunction with the traditional ballistic missile defense systems, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Vice President Mike Pence started his 10-day tour throughout the Asia-Pacific region in South Korea, and the main topic of conversation was the nation’s neighbor to the north. While visiting the demilitarized zone, he reiterated the United States’ dedication to a denuclearized Korean peninsula.

He said that process would start with negotiations,”but all options are on the table.” He went on to say, “President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out, and we want to see change.” Pence’s statements came one day after North Korea’s latest missile test failed.

China has more options to pressure North Korea than people think, a former CIA China analyst told CNBC on Monday. Dennis Wilder, a China specialist who served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said North Korea’s massive parade in its capital Pyongyang on Saturday is an example of China’s influence over the reclusive country.

“You’ll actually see in that parade transporters that the Chinese provided to the North Koreans for their logging industry. That’s just one indicator of the kinds of equipment Chinese continue to give to the North Koreans that frankly aids and abets the North Koreans and what they’re doing,” Wilder said on “Squawk Box.”

PANMUNJOM, South Korea — A day after a failed North Korean missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump had a message Monday for the North’s ruler: ‘Gotta behave.” At the same time, Vice President Mike Pence warned at the Korean Demilitarized Zone that America’s “era of strategic patience is over.” Keeping up the verbal volleying, North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador accused the United States of turning the Korean peninsula into “the world’s biggest hotspot” and creating “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment.” Pence’s visit to the tense DMZ dividing North and South Korea came at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia and underscored U.S. commitment. It allowed the vice president to gaze at North Korean soldiers afar and stare directly across a border marked by razor wire.

As the bomber jacket-clad vice president was briefed near the military demarcation line, two North Korean soldiers watched from a short distance away, one taking multiple photographs of the American visitor. Pence told reporters that Trump was hopeful China would use its “extraordinary levers” to pressure the North to abandon its weapons program, a day after the North’s failed missile test launch. But Pence expressed impatience with the unwillingness of the North to move toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Pointing to the quarter-century since the United States first confronted North Korea over its attempts to build nuclear weapons, he said a period of patience had followed.

“But the era of strategic patience is over,” he declared. “President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out and we want to see change. We want to see North Korea abandon its reckless path of the development of nuclear weapons, and also its continual use and testing of ballistic missiles is unacceptable.”

PANMUNJOM, South Korea — The White House displayed a tough and unyielding approach to North Korea and its nuclear ambitions Monday, with President Donald Trump warning that Kim Jong Un has “gotta behave” and Vice President Mike Pence sternly advising Kim not to test America’s resolve and military power. Trump, in Washington, and Pence at the tense Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, signaled a forceful U.S. stance on North Korea’s recent actions and threats. But no one was predicting what might come next. Behind the heated rhetoric, in fact, Trump’s strategy in the region looks somewhat similar to predecessor Barack Obama’s — albeit with the added unpredictability of a new president who has shown he’s willing to use force.

Pence, inspecting the DMZ, warned Pyongyang that after years of testing the U.S. and South Korea with its nuclear ambitions, “the era of strategic patience is over.” Appearing later with South Korea’s acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, the vice president pointed to Trump’s recent military actions in Syria and Afghanistan as signs that the new administration would not shrink from acting against the North. “North Korea would do well not to test his resolve — or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region,” Pence said at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia. Pence’s remarks also came with hope for a diplomatic path. Washington, he said, was looking for security “through peaceable means, through negotiations.”

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on Tuesday that the two countries need to persuade China to play a larger role in dealing with North Korea, a Japanese government spokesman said. The two confirmed during a working lunch that China’s role was important in dealing with North Korea, and they needed to work on China to take on a bigger role, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told reporters.

North Korea has conducted a series of ballistic missile launches in recent months in defiance of U.N. sanctions and concerns have been growing that the reclusive state could soon conduct a sixth nuclear test. With a U.S. aircraft carrier group steaming to the area in a show of force, fears of a confrontation have been rising.